Tasting qualities : the past and future of tea / Sarah Besky.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the production of quality -- The work of taste -- The auction and the archive -- The problem with blending -- The science of quality -- The quality of cheap tea -- The quality of markets -- Conclusion: the endurance of quality.

"What is the place of quality in contemporary capitalism? How is a product as ordinary as a bag of tea valued for its quality? In her innovative study, Sarah Besky addresses these questions by going inside an Indian auction house where experts taste and value mass-market black tea, one of the world's most recognized commodities. Pairing rich historical data with ethnographic research among agronomists, professional tea tasters and traders, and tea plantation workers, Besky shows how the meaning of quality has been subjected to nearly constant experimentation and debate over the history of the tea industry. Working across political economy, science and technology studies, and sensory ethnography, the book argues for an approach to quality that sees it not as a final destination for economic, imperial, or post-imperial projects but as an opening for those projects"--